Preparing your house for selling can be a
daunting and overwhelming task whether you have lived in your home a few years
or many. The longer you have lived in your home the more things you will have
acquired. The intent of this Top 10 Tips for Successful Home Staging is to help
you save TIME, MONEY and ENERGY.

In preparing your house for selling you
need to take a step back and have the mind set that this is no longer your home
but your investment for your future. You want your home to have broad buyer
appeal to your target market. Following these 10 Tips for Successful Home
Staging will help you sell your house sooner and possibly for more money than
if you did not prepare it for selling! Remember most people want to move into
their new home without having to make updates to it.

1. Curb Appeal

Stand back and view your home as if you
were seeing it for the first time. This is the ‘first impression’ stage.
Depending on the season you may want to have pots of colourful and attractive
flowers to greet buyers; a clean and inviting door mat; new and shiny door
handles and/or knockers; a freshly painted door.

2. Declutter

Start your pre-pack as soon as possible.
You need to decide what you are going to keep, give away, sell or throw
away/recycle. Many clients will rent storage lockers or have pods delivered so
they can start to clear out what is not going to make the house look good.

3. Clean

You would think this one is common sense
but let me assure you, I wish it was so! A clean home translates into ‘They
must have really cared for their home.” Use environmentally friendly cleaners
where you can, for hard cleaning areas tsp is a good product. Bathrooms and
kitchens must be sparkling clean at the very least.

4. Depersonalize

We know you love your family photos and
your personal treasures and for living they are perfect. For selling pack them
up carefully so you can showcase them in your new home. For selling you want
buyers to focus on the best features of your home and not your personal things
or collections.

5. A neutral colour scheme is the way to go
for selling.

Choose only 3 colours or less to paint your
house for selling. If you have an open floor plan then paint the main floor all
the same colour. Bedrooms look good in light sage greens or warm blues like the
new aqua.

6. Highlight your home’s best architectural
features

Place your furniture in each room so that
you have very obvious focal points that show off the home’s best selling
features. For example, if you have a beautiful fireplace then place the
furniture in a parallel grouping so that the eye is drawn to the fireplace.

7. Decide on the function in each room

If you were using your guest bedroom as
your den for living, for selling turn it back into a bedroom with bedroom
furniture in it. If you do not have the right furniture for each room consider
renting it. There are more and more rental furnishing companies opening up
every day. If you don’t want to rent then borrow.

8. Lighting your home to its best advantage

Spend money on new light fixtures in
brushed nickel or stainless steel. Brass is out so don’t fight it. There are
many low-cost lighting stores to select from so no excuses for having dated
light fixtures.

9. Window treatments that sell your home

The most popular on the market are the 2”
faux woods in a white tone to go with your trim. Decorative side panels will do
the trick if you need to add warmth and colour.

10. Flooring needs special attention and is
a good investment for updating the look of your home

Tile or linoleum is great for entranceways,
bathrooms, kitchens, laundry rooms; a good quality laminate or hardwood is
perfect for living rooms and family rooms; bedrooms are attractive in a neutral
carpet.

By planning and budgeting you can get
yourself to the “OPEN HOUSE READY” stage.

Remember that the vast majority of
prospective buyers have already looked at your listing on the internet. Will
they like what they see?